Commercial Law

Commercial Law - Overview

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Commercial law as a subject gives you a view of the legal structure that regulates economic decision making within the business world. It is about presenting the Finnish and international rules of the game. Successful entrepreneurship requires knowledge of the rules and standards controlling the industry.

The personnel of the Department works both in Helsinki and Vaasa. The personnel consists today of seven teachers, Matti Kukkonen (professor and head of Department, interest areas tax law and company law), Petri Mäntysaari (professor and Vice Head of Department, located in Vaasa, interest areas law of company finance, company law, corporate governance), Niklas Bruun (professor, intellectual property law), Joachim Enkvist (Post-doctoral researcher), Marcus Norrgård (professor, intellectual property law), Anders von Koskull (lecturer, labour law) and Mayvor Höglund (hourly indtructor, located in Vaasa, commercial law). Courses are given within the framework of the Bachelor´s and Master´s degree curriculum at the school. Research and teaching at the Department is focused upon such law as is relevant to business. It is mainly directed to the following areas:

• contract law and credit- and insolvency law,
• company law, law of corporate finance and corporate governance
• tax law with special regard to the taxation of enterprises
• intellectual property law and market law
• labour law

Legal methodology in use is partly traditional, but much influenced by European law, international instruments like tax treaties and trade agreements. Comparative law methods are also used and studies of foreign law forms an important part of current research. Hereby, a special part of the research is directed towards the interaction between law and economic theory within the reserach domains.

Teaching programme is accomplished mainly through joint courses in Helsinki and Vasa. The majority of the courses are in Swedish, completed by a number of courses in English. The department encourages especially those interested in international commercial law to take the opportunity to go abroad as an exchange student and to participate in the highly qualitative language courses at Hanken. At the department we make an effort to smoothen the combination of exchange studies with the studies at Hanken.

Due to an agreement on collaboration in the legal science between the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, the department of Commercial Law at Hanken and the autonomous Swedish School of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki allows for participation in the lecturing at the other universities respectively. You will find further information on this on the website of the department.

The Centre of International Economic Law, CIEL, is an institution established by the Department to promote and conduct research within the field of International Economic Law. CIEL focuses mainly on the law of the European Union and the study of the new legal and institutional environment for business.

Additional information:

Professor Matti Kukkonen, Helsinki
Head of Department
Tel: +358-(0)9 431 33 339
Email: matti.kukkonen[a]hanken.fi

Professor Niklas Bruun, Helsinki
Tel: +358-(0)9 191 22 776
Email: niklas.bruun[a]hanken.fi

Professor Petri Mäntysaari, Vaasa
Tel: +358-(0)6 35 33 735
Email: petri.mantysaari[a]hanken.fi

Bachelor's and Master's Programme in Commercial Law (Helsinki and Vaasa)

Department's general teaching programme is accomplished mainly through joint courses in Helsinki and Vaasa. The majority of the courses are in Swedish, completed by a number of courses in English. You can choose Commercial Law as a major or as a minor. In addition to the general programme, Department also offers additional separate Master's programmes (see below).

Beyond the compulsory course Introduction to Commercial Law the basic studies consist of the courses Sale of Goods and Market Law and Company and Banking Law. The former obviously is essential for all business activities and the latter focuses on the organizational and financial frames for business. The latter is also important considering leadership, economic administration, auditing, banking etc.

In the intermediate courses the focus is mainly on central questions about the respective problem areas. Intellectual Property and Competition Law focuses on the protection of commercial exclusive rights such as brands and patents, as well as on the regulation of competition on the markets. The course Labour Law offers an essential knowledge basis for the human resource department. Here the relationship between employer and employee is in focus. In the course Tax Law emphasis is put on company taxation, while Law of Corporate Finance gives understanding in legal aspects of agreements and capital markets. The course Law of Corporate Finance discusses the relationship between legal rules and corporate financial decisions.

Both at the Helsinki and the Vaasa campuses you can choose Commercial Law as a major in the range of the Master's programme. A Master's Degree Diploma forms a good professional basis for tasks where both economic and legal knowledge is needed. The department of Commercial Law aims to offer flexible Master's studies which are easily combinable with all business economics subjects at Hanken.

Commercial law has strong international connections and the national law in Finland is influenced by the Finnish EU-membership. International aspects are most prominent in our English courses Law of Corporate Finance, Commercial Contract Law and European and International Trade Law. The courses Comparative Corporate Governance and The Corporation and its Employees form a part of the English Master's programme Corporate Governance (see below).

Information:

Professor Matti Kukkonen
Head of Department
Tel: +358-(0)9 431 33 339
Email: matti.kukkonen[a]hanken.fi

Department Secretary
Harriet Napari
Tel: +358-(0)9 431 33 224
Email: harriet.napari[a]hanken.fi

Master's Degree Programme in Accounting and Business Law (Vaasa, autumn 2007)

At the Vaasa campus the department cooperates with the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki and with the University of Vasa. Here students have the possibility to major in Commercial Law through the integrated Bachelor's and Master's programme. As of the academic year 2007-2008 the departments of Commercial Law and Accounting will offer an interdisciplinary Master's programme in the subjects Accounting and Business Law.

The Department offers the following courses in this area: Bolags- och finansieringsrätt, Law of Corporate Finance, Aktiebolagets kapital and Comparative Corporate Governance. Professor Petri Mäntysaari is responsible for these courses. In addition to these courses, tax law is very important in corporate finance.

Information:

Professor Petri Mäntysaari
Tel: +358-(0)6 35 33 735
Email: petri.mantysaari[a]hanken.fi

Master's Degree Programme in Corporate Governance (Helsinki)

Department of Commercial Law contributes to a multi-discipline programme in corporate governance in Helsinki. This programme has its own homepage.

Information:

Professor Matti Kukkonen
Tel: +358-(0)9 431 33 339
matti.kukkonen[a]hanken.fi

Professor Petri Mäntysaari
Tel: +358-(0)6 35 33 735
petri.mantysaari[a]hanken.fi

Master's Degree Programme in Intellectual Property Law (Helsinki)

On the Master's degree level the department at the campus in Helsinki offers students the possibility to specialize in intellectual property law. This programme is also partly based on lectures given by the IPR University Center.

This programme has its own homepage.

Information:

Professor Niklas Bruun
Tel: +358-(0)9 191 22 776
Email: niklas.bruun[a]hanken.fi

Assistant Professor Marcus Norrgård
Tel: +358-(0)6 35 33 700
Email: marcus.norrgard[a]hanken.fi

Research in Commercial Law

Hanken's research database CRIS includes information about current research activities. The researchers themselves update their information so that staff, students and externals can obtain up-to-date information about the research conducted at Hanken.

• Research Database CRIS

The researchers own home pages can be found through the tools on the right.

Contact and personal home pages

• Commercial Law

Doctoral Studies

After graduating students have a possibility to continue with post grad studies and to pass a Doctor's degree within economic sciences and with Commercial Law as a major. Students interested are encouraged to contact one of the professors at the department. Detail of all courses can be found in the Study Handbook.

• Intellectual Property Law in Context
• The Innocent Graduate School - Spring 2007